1421 The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies - 2004

Harper Perennial, 2004. first provisional edition published 2004. Paperback. Fair. this is an oversize paperback book it has been read there is wearing along the pages of the cover and spine are all the way around than the usual amount of dirtiness the corners of the cover softcover's, slightly rolled him on the front top and bottom and rear.. Still completely readable but it looks like it's him several times certainly not carefully...On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was "to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony.When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed was how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted in America and other countries the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world. Paperback: 656 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition edition (January 6, 2004) Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches Weight: 1.4 pounds..... Since I am not a thrift shop, have no minions, am not a megastore, my books are priced so after everyone else gets theirs, I make it least a small profit to cover my time, and costs and efforts. Sometimes an amazingly small profit...The book would be Shipped Media mail via USPS it comes from the Los Angeles Area at whatever PO is closest to my errands or my life that day since I carefully pack your book then have to hop on the Vespa and visit the PO to have it placed in our mail system...Your purchase helps a middle aged college girl buy more books and the occasional pedicure. .. a dental visit or two .In addition, I need to downsize my personal library built over the years.